Blood Sacrifice
Blood Sacrifice is a means by which worshipers at an altar of Nerull can gain EXP by torturing people to death. The more powerful the victim, the more experience is gained from the sacrifice. The victim is placed on an altar to Nerull and restrained, magically or physically, then drained of blood. Resisting the altar's effects is difficult to start with and gets increasingly more difficult as the victim grows weaker from blood loss. (In game terms, the altar's effects manifest as repeated Fortitude saves against Constitution damage until the victim is freed or dies at Constitution 0.) The weaker version of the altar had needles to drain blood, while the more powerful version magically drew blood from the body in large quantities without causing a physical wound. Blood flows from the victim into the altar, fueling it magically. About half of the blood is used to power the ritual, and the other half remains as a result. When the victim is bled dry and dies, consuming their blood will grant the drinker their power. The ritual is described in the real Necronomicon. Victims can be released from the altar by entering a proper key phrase. The party does not know if a person who has been killed by Blood Sacrifice can be resurrected at all or by anything short of a True Resurrection. They're hoping they don't have to find out. Instances The party has encountered Blood Sacrifice several times while around Point North. So far, most of them have been connected both to Nerull and to Tiamat. They know of at least three altars capable of Blood Sacrifice, though one was destroyed by Leilah Maloch. Fauxdin Evil Baudin used this method to pay the EXP costs for crafting magic items by slaughtering many of the members of his personality cult. Alphabet Alphabet's dragon cult outside Point North had an altar to Nerul which attempted to draw in anyone who came too close. This is probably at least one of the reasons why it was hidden behind an illusory wall and a large number of metal bars. Anyone failing a Will save was drawn onto the altar and began to bleed profusely from the palms, wrists and ankles, with death certain within minutes if the correct code was not tapped on the altar. There were no visible wounds, but even after being freed from the altar the victim would continue to bleed until treated with a Heal check. The altar displayed the words "From ashes to ashes, from dust to dust" in a language chosen by selecting an alphabet from those of Common/Celestial, Dwarven, Illumian, and Eastern Common. When Ashra critically failed her save and was nearly killed by this altar, Ethan of Malvont worked out the password, which was to choose only the letters from this message which spelled out "Free from us to us." This altar still exists, but is hidden from the outside world by about 120 feet of rock because the room and passage immediately outside it were blown up by Alphabet. The cult had been capturing victims for some time. Alphabet went to significant lengths to snare Ashra, presumably for sacrifice on this altar. However, the cult did not sacrifice her in the four or five hours she was unconscious in their lair, instead draining a small quantity of her blood with needles and leaving her to freeze on a pile of logs in the dragon's lair. The Black Hand A high priest of Duplicitous on the Crna Ruka used a similar altar to Nerul, but was killing his (far weaker) victim much more slowly. This altar had physical bonds with needles in them to tie the victim down. This altar bore the words "There are worse things than being banished to the 237th". This is a reference to Tiamat. The code phrase for this altar is unknown and irrelevant, because Leilah smashed it with a Shatterspike in order to free Ruska of Point North. It has been destroyed and Pelor is appoint. Anahita has confirmed that the Bloodfoe contains a similar altar, but the Nauteloid does not. Poetry According to the Blackguard of the Dome, Poetry Brysis once attempted to sacrifice him to Nerull when they were dating.